Railroaders' Nostalgia > Great Northern Electrics & Turbine Info Needed

I've been looking for a book or source in web that would have a lot of information on the Great Northern great old electrics and a couple of turbines too hopefully.

I even wrote to California State Railway Museum, which has a sizable bookshop, but probably this is too tough a question for them too since they never answered my question.

Would any on this forum give a hint where to look and maybe which store or place in the web to contact to find some real (more than superficial) information on those rare engines? Any suggestions and guesses at this point are also also most welcome!

Below a picture of the W-1 monster locomotive of GN, a model of it running on the Finnish H0 GN themed layout.

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Your absolute best bet is the join the Great Northern Railway Historical Society. They have an electronic database and one can search past issues for areas of interest. I do recall seeing certain things about the electrics in the past. Good luck and would love to see pictures of your GN railroad.

I think William D. Middleton's book "When Steam Roads Electrified" also has information on the electrics.

Thank you RailThunder! I checked the archive. Only wish they had true reference books for sale at their archive.

RailThunder Wrote:
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> Your absolute best bet is the join the Great
> Northern Railway Historical Society. They have an
> electronic database and one can search past issues
> for areas of interest. I do recall seeing certain
> things about the electrics in the past. Good luck
> and would love to see pictures of your GN
> railroad.

Thank you SOO! I did buy the book, which was unusually difficult as the book weights something like 2 kilograms and the sellers at Amazon are not allowed to charge extra for transportation of this large objects. Only the eight seller finally agreed on selling the book!

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> I think William D. Middleton's book "When Steam
> Roads Electrified" also has information on the
> electrics.

McKey Wrote:
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> I've been looking for a book or source in web that
> would have a lot of information on the Great
> Northern great old electrics and a couple of
> turbines too hopefully.
>
> I even wrote to California State Railway Museum,
> which has a sizable bookshop, but probably this is
> too tough a question for them too since they never
> answered my question.
>
> Would any on this forum give a hint where to look
> and maybe which store or place in the web to
> contact to find some real (more than superficial)
> information on those rare engines? Any suggestions
> and guesses at this point are also also most
> welcome!
>
> Below a picture of the W-1 monster locomotive of
> GN, a model of it running on the Finnish H0 GN
> themed layout.

Which turbines were you looking for info on? The coal turbine based on the W1?

Posted from iPhone

CSRM's book store has several GN books but I don't recall any with significant info or photos on the W1 electrics.

The comment about the GN historical society is spot on. Go to their web site (gngoat.org) and you'll find a page-by-page copy of the GE operator's manual with illustrations, for starters.

Most of the surviving GN (and NP) corporate archives are in the joint collection at the Minnesota Transportation Museum's Jackson Street roundhouse in St. Paul, MN. They are, as is typical of such collections, "secured" but available to anyone making a decent request for research needs.

I have seen that engine more than once, it came threw Leavenworth on the head-end
of the Empire Builder.. My Dad told me the story of it..
.....Wrecked on a curve rebuilt with an EMD loco shell.....Swede....Albany,Or.